Pico de Gallo – Vegetarian Mexican Recipes

If you’ve tasted Pico de gallo before, you cannot say or even type this word without your mouth watering. That’s the effect of this incredibly piquant condiment that is integral to Mexican cuisine.

Pico de Gallo, in Mexican, means the beak of a rooster and it is possibly named thus because people would eat this in pinches held between the thumb and the forefinger. Because of the Mexican flag colours in this salsa, it is also called Salsa Bandera (Bandera=flag).

What’s the difference between a Pico de Gallo and a salsa, you may wonder. Salsa is more of a mashed up tomatoes consistency, while Pico de gallo is like a finely chopped salad.

The Indian equivalent would be a kachumber salad which has finely chopped cucumber, tomatoes, onions and coriander. In my mexican version of this condiment, I’ve added finely chopped chillies, scallions (green parts of a spring onion) and jalapenos. Top a tortilla with a fried egg and some refried beans and fresh pico de gallo and you’re in for an explosion of flavours in your mouth. I’d recommend you lay your hands on a good knife and chop these manually, because food processor tends to crush things to a salsa consistency and that’s not what we are looking at here.